St. Jude Half Marathon

Woo hoo we did it! Lauren and I ran our second half marathon this past weekend. Zac had a wrestling tournament so he couldn't make it. Then, we decided it was too cold for Matt, mom and dad to come stand out there for 2 hours so just she and I headed down town for the race. The only down side was we did not have personal photographers this time!

Before the race. Waiting for our corral to start. Thank you, iPhone for the pics!

And after... official time 2:15:13 (2:15:12 for Lauren). We were quite proud considering we shaved 17 minutes off our finish time from the Little Rock Half last year. Ok... so I must have lost my mind because we ARE going to run the Little Rock Marathon this year! Oh. My. Word. I am so intimidated by it, but I know it will be awesome. It is a great time of year to train since Matt will be in the throws of tax season and it's cold outside. I love a good cold temp to run! Unless there is an injury or an unforeseen circumstance, we will be running 26.2 miles March 6!

Here is baby girl helping daddy drive home. Love that sweet angel.

And she poked up to say "hey" to mommy too.

Pass the Alieve,

Lana

My Cup Runneth Over

What an absolutely fabulous Thanksgiving celebration we just finished. I hope yours was so wonderful too. It was a great day surrounded by family. We traveled to Conway and met the rest of the Summitt clan at James and Peggy Summitt's home. They just moved in early this summer and have a beautiful home that they opened up to us. We usually go to Paragould to David and Karan's house- Matt's mommy and daddy. It was a treat for us to be in our house and sleep in our bed and drive 30 minutes away and come back to our house the same night. I realize that this means others were inconvenienced, but it was also nice to have David and Karan and Nathan at our house for the night. We stuffed ourselves silly with delicious turkey (fried and baked), turducken, sweet potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, broccoli grape salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy, jalepeno poppers, crab dip, chex mix, pigs in a blanket, salsa, spinach dip in a Hawaiian bread bowl, cream cheese dip with ginger snaps, cheese and sausage, pumpkin dip, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pecan gooey butter cake, chess pie, apple cider. I know I left something out, but I can't remember anything else. It was delicious. Jordan and Angila brought their new X-Box Kinect and we all had a blast playing it. Plus, we worked off some turkey jumping around the living room.

Today, we slept until about 7 and then went to IHOP and Black Friday shopping. Matt and I bought a small digital camera at Best Buy. We love our nice camera, but we are so excited to have a compact camera that is a bit more mobile and easier to carry. Then we hit up Target and I got some new PJ's and Matt got us a small LED TV for our room. (We are currently in bed watching it.) Also, my sweet MIL bought me a special present for our bedroom that I will document after we all get to celebrate Christmas the 3rd weekend of December. (Unless Nathan's cheer competition interferes.)

We are now in major Christmas mode and we put up the Christmas tree. I love pulling out all of the ornaments we have. Karan gave me several that belonged to Matt when he was growing up. (All golf related, odd huh? Ha.) I also have all of the ornaments that my MeeMaw started giving me 20 years ago. I was going to tell you about them, but I think that they maybe deserve their own blog post. Will do tomorrow, friends.

It's the most wonderful time of the year,

Lana

Being Lazy...

We slept until 9 this morning... This is unheard of in the Summitt House. I truly think it may be the latest we have slept since we've been married. Here are a few iPhone pics!

Painted my nails blue... I am so hip. Just stick with me and I will point you in the right direction when it comes to fashion. Haha yeah right!

Our doggies have been the cuddlingest (not a word!) doggies on the planet lately! I'm loving it! Here is Bear laying on her mommy!

And big ole Midas. I was doing abs on the ground and he had been laying on the couch. He got down and growled at me until I lay down flat. This is what he wanted to do. He wanted me to cuddle him and not do abs. I was fine with that. :)

Here they both are sharing the couch. They get the couch so I get the floor.

Now that's what I call a snuggie!

Hope you get to snuggle up to someone you love this week,

Lana

Why Vacation is Awesome

Today, I was on vacation. Here is what I did.

1.Made Matt breakfast (egg in a hole and bacon)
2.Picked up dog poop since garbage is picked up on Tuesdays and rolled the garbage down
3. Gave the dogs baths. I should video Bear sometime when she has to have a bath in cold water. She makes the most pitiful noises!
4. Washed the dogs' beds/ sheets and blew off all of the access hair from their patio
5. Went to the gym for about an hour.
6. Went to Target for a little Christmas shopping/ maybe got a little something for myself. Bought a blouse, tights, and a dress for $27.
7. Went to Kroger and got a few things I needed for our contribution to the Summitt Family Feast on Thursday.
8. Washed both sets of guest room sheets and washed our sheets.
9. Made pie crusts and froze them to have on hand
10. Made pizza crusts and froze them to have on hand. (1 will be dinner tomorrow!)
11. Prayed all day for Matt who was taking his ABV test. He said it was harder than the CPA! I am so proud of that dude. Results to come in February.
12. Dusted (my least favorite of all cleaning activities) and vacuumed
13. Cleaned all the bathrooms
14. Had dinner with some GREAT friends, Hunter and Carrie, at Texas Roadhouse. I. Am. Stuffed.
15. Ate half a bag of red hots... will probably finish when Matt goes to play video games with the youth group here in a minute... ignore number 14 about being stuffed. There is always room for red hots.

I have had a pretty productive day off. Tomorrow, we are hanging out since we will both be off and Matt will not be taking a 6hr 45min test! I think we will see a movie and hang around the house.

Going to finish out the day with a little Glee Episode,

Lana

Trashy Trash Can

This is the culprit. We bought this dude when we moved into our house (almost 2 years ago, can't believe how time flies!) He has put stainless steel scratches on the walls. I now get to re-paint the walls this week while I am on "vacation" :).

You can just barely see the scratches, but they are there.

Say "Hello" to my lih-le frien! (We just watched Scarface last week... and we have been saying "main" for "man" ever since. If you have not seen this movie, you probalby don't appreciate the references.) He sits comfortably against my counter and only has a small flap that opens and does NOT hit it.

See? No more scratches.

It's the little things, y'all,

Lana

Absolutely Fabulous Weekend

What an awesome weekend. It was so relaxing and what a blast!

Thursday night, or should I say Friday morning at 12 am, we went and saw Harry Potter 7 with the Hodges and Griffin! We got there at 9:25pm and got in line that was already wrapped around the building. We got into the theater around 10:30 and into our seats around 10:45. I took a little nap (even with the wand duel that was apparently going on at the front of the theater. It didn't wake me up!). I woke up ready for the movie at 11:45. We really loved it. I think that every movie is better than the last. I am so glad that they broke the last book into 2 movies. 1 movie would really not do the story justice.

Friday night, my sweet friend Kaitlin called and asked if we wanted to hang out. We went to Taziki's for some delicious Greek fare. We enjoyed great conversation and were really glad to catch up. I was so excited she called!

Saturday morning, my sister and her friend Rachael came in town. Matt had to study all day so we got out of the house. We hit up Anthropologie and Target for a little Christmas shopping/ shopping for ourselves. I am SO excited about the Christmas presents I got friends!!! I wish I could take pictures, but the people I bought for would then see the presents... oh well. Then we ate late lunch at YaYa's which was delicious. I had a Veggie Pita and Potato Soup. We THEN went to Cupcakes on the Ridge for some delicious gourmet cupcakes and yummy coffee. We hung out at home for a little while before going to dinner at Loca Luna.

Today (Sunday) we had church. Matt taught class and I really enjoyed it. I am so proud of him. I am so thankful for his faith and for the journey we have been on for the last 4 1/2 years. I love to hear him teach and voice his faith to others. Lauren and I were supposed to run 10 miles to train for our race December 4 this weekend, but we ran out of time with all of the eating/ napping/ shopping we had to get done. So I did it when she left late this afternoon. It was awful by myself and it would have been way more fun with her.

We had a great weekend. I hope you did too,

Lana

Boys will be boys...

Let me introduce you to Hayden. He knew we would be frying turkeys for our Life Group Feast and had this brilliant idea...

Hayden brought Twinkies for us to fry! Matt and I wondered what they would taste like if they were fried in the same grease that the turkeys (which were marinated in mustard, Cavendars and season salt and injected with Cajun Injector Marinade) were fried.

Here they are basking in the glory of the fryer.

And Hayden trying to keep them cooking evenly.

Um, yum?

After they tried one, they all had a bite and said it was delicious

Plate full of fried Twinkies! They then proceeded to have a Twinkie eating contest. Hayden and Patrick each ate 2 and saw who could eat the fastest. Patrick won!

Here's to making a Twinkie even more fattening,

Lana

2nd Annual Life Group Thanksgiving FEAST

It is a tradition in our Life Group to celebrate Thanksgiving by collaborating our various culinary skills and having a Thanksgiving Feast! Everything was absolutely DELICIOUS. Here are a few snap shots from the evening!
Abby, Blaze and Tia having just enjoyed their scrumptious meal

Cary, Carissa, Leslie and Megan eating in the hearth room

Cracked wheat bread, rolls, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes

Turkey (fried by my expert Turkey frying husband), dressing, cranberry sauce, gravy, creamed corn...

Cheesecake Sopapillas, apple dumplings, pecan pie, pecan pie bars, pumpkin pie... a smorgasbord of delicious treats.

And here is my best buddy after a long day of frying turkey and grilling chicken! He's the man. Best part? We all get to do it again next week with our families. It is such a blast celebrating Thanksgiving with your friends!

Gobble gobble,

Lana

HOGS GAME!!!

So last Friday night I went to YaYa's with my Aunt Phyl and Cousin Tina. I had my phone in my purse and looked at it when the check came. I had a missed call, voicemail and text from a good buddy Lindsey. Lindsey was trying to let me know she had FREE tickets to the Razorback vs Ole Miss game and wanted to do a girls trip!!! I double checked with the hubby who said, "Of course! How fun!" and we went on our merry little way to Fayetteville the next morning! Lindsey, Carrie, Amanda and me! We had a blast. They picked me up from the Morgan/ Maumelle exit at 7:15. We made it the whole way with out stopping. (I don't normally do that, I have to stop so I was impressed with myself.) We decided to pay $10 and park at Wendy's. Then we walked to Chick-fil-a and ate breakfast. Then we walked to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium and made our way up to our sets just in time for kick off! We had GREAT seats. They were on the 50 yard line! They were also in the upper deck, which I love, because you truly can see everything that goes on in the stadium. Here are some snapshots.


This is the "Arkansas" side of the field. You can sort of see the hill in the background where you can sit on the grass and watch the game.

And here is the "Razorback" side!

This is the band- no DOUBT playing the fight song when I took the picture!

Here is the team on the field. I believe this is the offense judging from Tyler Wilson being in the huddle.

OK so we had 2 rain delays. Here we are in the concourse huddled among EVERYONE

Me too- didn't get the black jacket memo.

It was SUCH a blast!

Back out in the stadium after the rain delay! Carrie being goofy.

And sweet Lindsey being goofy.

All 3 being GOOFY! HAHA. Notice, I took no pictures of ME being goofy! ;) See the Hog on the screen? Scary and intimidating, huh?

The sky was also scary and intimidating!

When the second rain delay happened, we decided to call it a day and we headed on back to Little Rock. We stopped at Braums for some delicious ice cream/ yogurt/ fried yumminess and we were on our way. What a great time! Thanks again, Lindsey for inviting me! And Woo Pig Sooiee!

Here's to a great time with great friends,

Lana

Pumpkin Party!

The females in our Life Group got together last Tuesday to carve pumpkins! How fun! This is Carter. Isn't he precious? His dad took him to the baby gym, so he is fresh off his work out in this picture.
Here is his mommy Krista's pumpkin. It is an owl! Isn't it cute? (Krista not pictured)

Here is Kaitlin! She made a big ole smiley face! He is cute! (You can see him in the picture above with Carter too.) See how Carter is making sure we did a good job?

This is Carissa and her pumpkin! She made a beautiful leaf design in her white pumpkin. It was so elegant! And she did it free hand- very impressive!

This is my little dude. He was already partly rotten. So now, he is really rotten on my front porch. It is a spider.

That's it! Cary and Tia were also there. Tia decided to sit out the carving, but from the way she was talking, she is an expert! Cary worked on her Halloween costume while we carved pumpkins. She is going to be Barbie in a box! Great time with great friends!

Trick-or-treat!?

Lana

Lana

Continuing the Tail

Well, we had a nice trip to the doggie ER this weekend. We came home Saturday night and his tail had split open. Naturally, we assumed he had chewed it open and thought we better get it stitched up pronto. We got there around 10:30 and got to see the Dr. at 12am. They were quite busy. The vet was Dr. Ray who did Bear's abdominal surgery to remove the socks!! We LOVE Dr. Ray. She remembered Bear (without us telling her Bear's name!) asked about how she was doing. She said that she did not think Midas had chewed his tail open. She said it looked like it had popped it on something- probably on the wall getting in/ out of the kennel and that she could not stitch it back up. So, we got it wrapped up, she gave us a bigger collar, some pain pills and we were on our way! We got in bed at 2 am and made the decision to skip church Sunday morning. Didn't feel bad at all! We have been going going going all the time and we NEVER just stop and sleep in and relax. We did that Sunday morning. We slept until 10:45. I (humbly) believe that God wants us to rest our bodies. He did! I had my praise time while I ran my 7 miles. I have been listening to Pandora's Christian radio station while running and it is so uplifting! It is amazing to praise God while running and exercising the body He has given me. If you have an iPhone, download the Pandora app! It's free. Here is buddy and his giant cone!

Yay Monday is over!

Lana

Racing for the Cure with My Sis

Do you see this person? I love this lady. She's my big sister. She does everything first and then tells me how to do it. She has always been the boss of me. Since we were 3 and 6 and she told me what to have my Barbies say. And I love her for it. She and her hubby Zac came in town this past weekend and Lauren and I ran the Race for the Cure together. We signed up for the "Elite" race. It was new this year for people who wanted to run the race and not walk. It had to be completed in 27 minutes or under. This is such an amazing event! This year there were over 45,000 racers! We are now the 3rd largest race in the world! Pretty amazing. Other than the race, we ate at our favorite, Loca Luna, and shopped at our favorite store, Antropologie. It was a blast and I really cherish EVERY minute with Lauren because soon, she will be moving all the way to Alabama to join a OB/ Gyn practice. I am incredibly proud of her and so very thankful to call her my sissy!

I would like to introduce you to...

MY ETSY SHOP! Woo hoo! I am so excited! Lorrie's gift to me a few weeks ago (the beautiful wreath) 100% inspired me. When I walked into her workshop, I thought I would LOVE to do this... and possibly make the hobby into a business. So, friends, here is my ETSY Shop! I only have 2 wreaths up right now. (I am starting off small and when these 2 sell, I will make more!) I hope you love it!!! And if you are interested in one of my 2 wreaths, please let me know and we can make a transaction outside of ETSY!

http://etsy.com/shop/lanaslittlehappys

R.I.P. Midas' Tail

So sad, my friends. We went in yesterday for a check up and the news was not good. Dr. House recommended amputation. It was funny because we left the bandage off last night and Matt and I thought it looked not better but different. Dr. Karen called me this morning when we dropped him off and said that we were right- it did look different because his tail had gangrene. I guess we got to it just in time. She said it was very quickly spreading up his tail. Anyway. Here is my sweet baby boy. So sleepy from his anesthesia. Side note: he was also neutered. Such a hard day for this little guy. Thank you for listening the last several weeks and praying for him and us.

Closet Purge

What was I thinking? I went through this faze (when I was on call and could basically only wear scrubs for 2 years) that I gained weight and purged my closet thinking, "I'll buy new clothes" and I gave away a LOT of my clothes. Why did I do that? Why?

I don't know the answer to that question. I do know that I miss those clothes now and will sometimes remember them and want to wear them but I can't because I gave them away since I didn't wear them for 6 months or so. A lot of them, I could wear to work, but alas, they are gone.

Also, Anthropology opened on Friday. I am avoiding this place with every fiber of my being because it is pure torture to walk through and want want want and not buy buy buy. We are really trying to watch our dollars and save up.

Anyhoo, random post, but that's been in my mind. What a dummy- giving away all your clothes!

Experiencing the Sunday Night Blues,

Lana

Amazingly Humbling Gift

This weekend, in Collierville, my mom, sister and I were doing our usual thing and going shopping/ going to eat lunch. We drove by the neighborhood of some of our very good friends Tommy and Lorrie Tubbs. I was asking my mom about how Lorrie has been feeling lately and my mom says, "Well, you're about to find out. We are going over there." I thought, "Well, ok."

We get to the door and we get great big hugs and she smells delicious as she always does. I love to hug Lorrie because she leaves her scent on you when she hugs you and you think of her the rest of the day. She looks at my mom and says, "Does she know why she's here?" Haha! I laughed and said, "What is going on?!" Lorrie then proceeds to take us upstairs to this AMAZING craft room. She has these two 3x8 foot tables pushed together and they are covered in these beautiful Christmas wreaths and candle holders. My sister walks up to this precious green and white wreath and says, "I like this one." Then Lorrie says, "It's yours!" Then she looks at me and says, "Lana, I made this one especially for you. Your mom told me you like candy and classic Christmas decorations." I was absolutely humbled and amazed at her generosity and it immediately brought me to tears. (And my mom and my sister because when we cry/ laugh it is contagious.) I wish I had the words to thank her properly. She spent countless hours making this beautiful wreath JUST FOR ME.

I was so touched- beyond words- that she would think of me and do something that special for me. Here is the picture!

Tail Update!

Well, as you can see from the picture, poor buddy went back to the vet this morning. We got some good news from Dr. Karen though! She said that the granulation tissue looked better today than Monday. EXCEPT for the little piece of dead bone sticking out of his tail still. Well, she decided to just snip it off and see if that will heal up over the next several days! That was just wonderful news to hear. I think little buddy was excited too. Thanks for praying! Please pray that when we go back on Saturday, he is doing even better and can maybe stop wearing the collar!